


only the sun has come so close to me

by ariya167



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Courting Rituals, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Language of Flowers, Romance, Sabédala Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-21 05:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21069917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariya167/pseuds/ariya167
Summary: Padmé, Sabé, and the Naboo language of flowers.





	only the sun has come so close to me

There was a delicate blue and yellow ryoo flower tucked behind Padmé’s ear. Sabé tried not to stare, but it was no use. She spent every brief moment of rest, between astronomy homework and blaster practice, gazing at the ryoo flower in wonder. 

“What are you doing,” Eirtaé asked flatly, not looking up from her datapad. Sabé glanced at it, and was completely baffled by the algebra equations sliding across the screen. 

“What?”

Eirtaé slowly lifted her eyes, cutting her cool gaze across Sabé’s face. “You know what. Staring at Padmé like some moon-struck-”

“Oh, would you keep quiet?” Sabé hissed. Evidently, her interest had not gone unnoticed. But so what if she didn’t want Padmé to overhear? That didn’t mean anything. 

Eirtaé arched one delicate eyebrow. “If you insist,” she said eventually, and returned her gaze to her work. 

Sabé tried to do the same, to put Padmé and her flower out of her mind. But even after that morning, she kept thinking of that beautiful blue and yellow ryoo. A ryoo flower, for passion, and love. 

Two days later, Sabé waited on Padmé with a shuura blossom and a rominaria flower tucked into the sash across her waist. 

“And tomorrow, you’ll be attending the Theed Symphony-” Rabé said, and stopped, frowning at Padmé. “Are you listening, my lady?”

“Hmm? I-yes, thank you, Rabé,” Padmé said distractedly, but it was clear she was not. Her eyes were focused on the two flowers hidden in Sabé’s sash, and as she stared, her breath caught in her throat. 

A shuura blossom, for understanding, and a rominaria flower, for devotion. An acknowledgement of Padmé’s previous message-if it had been a message, which judging by Padmé’s reaction, it clearly was. 

Rabé frowned, but continued with her itinerary. Eirtaé met Sabé’s gaze above Padmé’s head, and mouthed, ‘Moon-struck.’

Sabé flushed, and looked away. 

Every day they were together after that, Padmé had a flower somewhere on her person. A blossom tucked behind her ear, or a chain woven gently into her hair, or even a trim embroidered on her hem. The flowers varied from day to day, but Sabé always looked for them.   
A purple passion behind her ear, for joy. A pattern of Alderaanian flame lilies around her sleeves, for romance. Rojos for love and Ithorian roses for admiration. Sabé smiled to herself every time she saw them, but luckily, her outbursts remained private. 

Or so she thought, until Eirtaé found her one morning in the palace gardens on one of her rare days off.

“Eirtaé,” Sabé called, beckoning her over. Eirtaé’s face was completely hidden in the hood of her dark scarlet robes, but Sabé would recognize one of her sisters anywhere.

Eirtaé nodded, joining Sabé on one of the garden benches. She lowered her hood, and gazed flatly at the quietly burbling fountain further along the path. Sabé didn’t say anything. If Eirtaé wanted to speak, she would, and if she just wanted to enjoy the day, she would do that as well. 

“Padmé is courting you,” she said abruptly, and very nearly startled Sabé. 

Sabé opened her mouth to defend it herself, closed it, and sighed. There was no hiding with Eirtaé. “Yes,” she admitted. The flowers, the secret messages of love and devotion between the two of them. There was no hiding that, especially not to another handmaiden. 

“I hope you’re not trying to dictate my love life,” Sabé said, with perhaps a bit more sharpness to her tone than was strictly necessary, considering Eirtaé hadn’t actually said anything to that effect. “Padmé and I are both making our own choices, and I hope you can respect that.”

Eirtaé blinked, and then laughed. “Of course not, Sabé. I support you wholeheartedly, and so does Rabé. After all, plenty of monarchs have started relationships with their servants. Narmlé, Jafan, Yram, just to name a few.” 

“But?”

Eirtaé sighed. “But they were not often happy. They faced opposition on all sides from advisors, and other members of government who felt that the servants were being given too much power due to their relationships with the monarch. And some accused the monarchs of abusing their authority over their servants.” 

She paused, her normally cold gaze softening. “I simply wish for you and Padmé to know what you are doing, should your relationship become public. Not all those who love each other can withstand that kind of pressure without breaking apart.”

“Speaking from experience?” Sabé asked before she could stop herself. 

Eirtaé’s lip curled. “Ha! You wish. But I’ve seen enough of my brother’s failed conquests to get a sense of these sorts of things.” 

She stood, brushing an invisible layer of dust from her robes. “I hope you take what I’ve said into consideration, Sabé.”  
Sabé nodded. “I will,” she said, and found that she meant it. 

Three weeks of flower messages later, and Sabé was still thinking of Eirtaé’s advice when she woke to find a small bouquet in her chambers. A small blue millaflower, the variety of which was only grown in the palace’s greenhouses, ringed with starflowers, for love, sachi blossoms, for anticipation, and three small ferns tucked inside. 

Sabé’s breath caught in her throat. A millaflower, for the greenhouse, love, anticipation, and three dark ferns for time. The bouquet was such an absurd combination, and so incredibly ugly it could not be anything but a message. Padmé wished to meet her at the greenhouse, three hours after midnight. 

Sabé pinned a candlewick flower to the front of her robes, to say yes, and Padmé blushed whenever she looked upon it, distracted from the endless waves of paperwork and minor bills and cultural appearances that made up most of being queen. 

That night, Sabé crept from her room and through the halls of the palace, nearly invisible in her dark blue cloak, and silent on slippered feet. 

She slipped her hood back when she entered the greenhouse proper, her hair already starting to curl in the heavy heat. Sabé walked slowly, savoring every moment as she grew even closer to Padmé. On a whim, she plucked a small Queen’s Heart from a flowering vine, and carried it with her as she walked. 

Padmé was waiting for her under a dark green tree, dressed in her handmaiden’s clothes. Her smile grew even wider when she saw Sabé approach, and she pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. 

“I’ve missed you,” Sabé said, even though it had been mere hours since they had seen each other. She held out the Queen’s Heart. “For you.”

Padmé’s eyes widened, a blush travelling across her cheeks as she took it. A Queen’s Heart was a flower of romance, given to the object of one’s courtship, and Padmé clearly knew the connotations of it as a gift. 

“Thank you,” she said, breathing in the sweet scent of the flower. “So you’ve accepted my proposal?”

Sabé laughed gently, drawing Padmé closer into her arms. “Of course I have. How could I not? I love you, Padmé, as truly and as deeply as I have ever loved anything.”

It was a good speech, one that Sabé had rehearsed on the way to the greenhouse. But when Padmé kissed her, she forgot everything else she had planned to say. She rather liked the sensation, and kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> All the flowers mentioned in this fic are real Star Wars flowers, but most of them did not have meanings in terms of flower language, and I made up my own for the plot.


End file.
